[Crystal Millenium] The MD Program
07-25-2018, 06:18 PM (This post was last modified: 07-26-2018, 03:14 PM by Dartz.)
07-25-2018, 06:18 PM (This post was last modified: 07-26-2018, 03:14 PM by Dartz.)
Had a power failure and have been finishing a lot of old Fenspace Ideas I've had floating around.
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The MD Program
It’s been no secret that the old Hornblowers have been getting on in years for a long time, but any replacement was mired in the Quagmire that is the Politics of the Crystal Millenium, torn between a mix of pacifism, protectionism and parochialism.
It took 5 years for Atropos and Hotspur to even be completed, by which time the spaceframe had already begun to show its age. The enforced retirement of HMS Lydia only increased the strain on the remaining ships.
Two simple rules held up replacing them.
• The SAM is required by law to purchase all ships it flies from Takeuchi yards.
• Takeuchi Yards is forbidden by law from manufacturing ‘new’ combat vessels.
Thus far, this deadlock has forced the SAM to rely on increasingly aging equipment, or on increasingly clever loopholes for lighter vessels.
== Spasatel, The Rescuers ==
The second Lun-class Ekranoplan, Spasatel had remained in a hanger, incomplete, for nearly thirty years. Compared to the original Lun, she had been constructed as a dedicated search and rescue craft in an attempt to gain foreign sales.
The Crystal Millennium completed the purchase of the hull and lifted her to Takeuchi Yards, where she was patterned, then reconstructed. Some of the experience gained from the initial reconstruction of the original Lun was applied to accelerate the process.
The completed Spasatel was launched in February 2025, commencing detailed space trials after being fitted out for the search, rescue and research role.
[]Spasatel[/i] differs from her more combat-orientated sister in that she lacks the primary armament – her upper deck being given over to additional crew spaces, along with dedicated reconfigurable equipment spaces.
5 additional hulls were laid down – known by their Hull numbers. MD-162, 163, 164, 165 and 166. The process of actually naming the ships with proper themed name is on hold while the appropriate Parliamentary working group drafts recommendations on appropriate themes and their memetic consequences.
Competing submissions have been requested from a number of specialised consulting firms which are due to be placed before a neutral board of represenativies.
Currently, the leading proposals include naming them after famous lifeboats (Helen Blake, Mona…), yet another Age of Sail epic series, something more fitting their Soviet design heritage, or whatever the internet can agree on as a good idea. (Spacey McSpaceface)
For the time being the Rescuers remain unnamed.
== Excelion. The Boomer ==
The seventh Rescuer is anything but.
She was built on the special orders of Queen Serenity II herself, to the original Lun class designs, including all six “Drone Shuttlecraft launch tubes”.
To evade the restrictions on Takeuchi Yards building combat capable spaceraft, she was completed elsewhere at an undisclosed location and entered service with little to no public fanfare. Her exact capabilities, armaments and purpose are considered Crown secrets but it is thought that she is equipped with some form of guided interplanetary missile system.
Excelion’s existence and true nature as a combat vessel was made public following a heated questions session in the Tokyo Diet. The resulting controversy led to her being pulled from deep space patrol, and ordered to remain in Venus orbit while what to do with her was figured out.
There have been calls for her decommissioning, dismantlement, reconstruction and for more of her class to be built quick before the Boskone come back goddammit.
Whatever the answer will be, Excelion remains parked in orbit, fully crewed and technically still in active service.
A persistent rumour suggests that she doesn’t need to leave Venus space to be fully combat effective.
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The MD Program
It’s been no secret that the old Hornblowers have been getting on in years for a long time, but any replacement was mired in the Quagmire that is the Politics of the Crystal Millenium, torn between a mix of pacifism, protectionism and parochialism.
It took 5 years for Atropos and Hotspur to even be completed, by which time the spaceframe had already begun to show its age. The enforced retirement of HMS Lydia only increased the strain on the remaining ships.
Two simple rules held up replacing them.
• The SAM is required by law to purchase all ships it flies from Takeuchi yards.
• Takeuchi Yards is forbidden by law from manufacturing ‘new’ combat vessels.
Thus far, this deadlock has forced the SAM to rely on increasingly aging equipment, or on increasingly clever loopholes for lighter vessels.
== Spasatel, The Rescuers ==
The second Lun-class Ekranoplan, Spasatel had remained in a hanger, incomplete, for nearly thirty years. Compared to the original Lun, she had been constructed as a dedicated search and rescue craft in an attempt to gain foreign sales.
The Crystal Millennium completed the purchase of the hull and lifted her to Takeuchi Yards, where she was patterned, then reconstructed. Some of the experience gained from the initial reconstruction of the original Lun was applied to accelerate the process.
The completed Spasatel was launched in February 2025, commencing detailed space trials after being fitted out for the search, rescue and research role.
[]Spasatel[/i] differs from her more combat-orientated sister in that she lacks the primary armament – her upper deck being given over to additional crew spaces, along with dedicated reconfigurable equipment spaces.
5 additional hulls were laid down – known by their Hull numbers. MD-162, 163, 164, 165 and 166. The process of actually naming the ships with proper themed name is on hold while the appropriate Parliamentary working group drafts recommendations on appropriate themes and their memetic consequences.
Competing submissions have been requested from a number of specialised consulting firms which are due to be placed before a neutral board of represenativies.
Currently, the leading proposals include naming them after famous lifeboats (Helen Blake, Mona…), yet another Age of Sail epic series, something more fitting their Soviet design heritage, or whatever the internet can agree on as a good idea. (Spacey McSpaceface)
For the time being the Rescuers remain unnamed.
== Excelion. The Boomer ==
The seventh Rescuer is anything but.
She was built on the special orders of Queen Serenity II herself, to the original Lun class designs, including all six “Drone Shuttlecraft launch tubes”.
To evade the restrictions on Takeuchi Yards building combat capable spaceraft, she was completed elsewhere at an undisclosed location and entered service with little to no public fanfare. Her exact capabilities, armaments and purpose are considered Crown secrets but it is thought that she is equipped with some form of guided interplanetary missile system.
Excelion’s existence and true nature as a combat vessel was made public following a heated questions session in the Tokyo Diet. The resulting controversy led to her being pulled from deep space patrol, and ordered to remain in Venus orbit while what to do with her was figured out.
There have been calls for her decommissioning, dismantlement, reconstruction and for more of her class to be built quick before the Boskone come back goddammit.
Whatever the answer will be, Excelion remains parked in orbit, fully crewed and technically still in active service.
A persistent rumour suggests that she doesn’t need to leave Venus space to be fully combat effective.
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I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.